Spends hundreds of thousands of euros: the Russian Federation tries to restore the espionage network in the EU with its best
The Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) stated that Russian special services are spending a lot of funds on recruiting agents in Germany, despite the attempt to limit their operations after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "Russia is making every effort to compensate for the reduction of the number of Russian agents in Germany by the German government," said the head of the department Thomas Haldenwang at a press conference after presenting the agency's annual report.
According to BFV, two German citizens, who were charged with a state treason last August last year in favor of Russia in favor of Russia, paid approximately 400,000 euros for their services. "Spiers' fees show that Russian services still have huge financial resources to achieve their intelligence goals," the report added.
The German intelligence agencies were subjected to a particular risk of becoming a target of Russian special services, who lived in Russia or regularly went there, including German diplomats vulnerable to blackmail. "As soon as they receive compromising information about objects, these services are not ashamed to use aggressive recruitment methods," Kaldenang said.
This month, NATO has confirmed its anxiety about Russian espionage and called for more stringent actions in response to the fact that, he said, is a campaign of hostile actions, including sabotage and cyberattacks. Germany, recall, is one of 32 NATO countries.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 became a rude awakening for many representatives of Germany of Germany after many years, during which Berlin tried to tie Moscow to international legal order through a network of trade and especially energy ties. A recent spike in support of the Extremely Right-Wan Agreative for Germany (AFD) and the authoritarian-lung BSW also helped to provoke a serious rethinking.
Both sides often repeat the Kremlin's theses about the war, in particular in their disagreement with giving Ukraine weapons for self -defense. According to the BFV report, the number of right and left extremists last year increased by 4. 6% and 1. 4% in respectively to 40 600 and 37,000, which contributed to the transition of public discourse from actual debates to "aggressive confrontation".
Russia has proven its ability to adapt to finding ways to influence events in Germany even after its media channels have been banned and 600 of its diplomats that were all over Europe were sent, BFV reports. Some of those who exert, have switched to the Telegram social networking platform, which is difficult to control, and spies are now attached to international organizations. Russian officers who are instructed to work with informants are now traveling, not based in Germany.